Values: Every Person is Essential

“We need you.”  “We could use you.”  I remember the first time I heard those words.    I was a new student and just moving into my room on the third floor of the men’s dorm at Western Baptist College and I didn’t know anyone.  Then I met Chuck.  He was wearing his soccer gear and was getting ready for practice.  He asked me if I played soccer.  I said, “Yes, I played the last two years for Boones Treasury, a club team in Salem.”  Then I heard those life giving words, “Well, come out and join us, we need you, we could use you.”  That was an invitation I couldn’t refuse.  So I went out for the team and made it.  Most of that first year I spent on the sidelines.  But I worked hard on kicking with my left foot all summer.  So by the second year I won the starting role at left wing.  Now Chuck’s words rang true.  Not only was I needed, but now I belonged.

“We need you; we could use you” are life giving words.  Has anyone ever said them to you?  Hopefully so.  But the sad reality is that the reverse is often true.  We hear life-killing words like, “I don’t need your help.” or “We can get along fine without you.” Or “Sorry, you’re not qualified” or “Sorry, you are not what we are looking for.”

That’s why what we’re going to look at in God’s Word this morning is good news.   For God’s Word clearly proclaims that every person has an essential role to play in God’s Family. That’s the second Core Value of Rock Springs Church: Every Person is Essential Without you we are incomplete.  Without you we cannot function the way God intends for us to function.  Without you we might even fall apart.  But with you, we can become all God intends us to be.  With you we become what God designed us to become: a family where everyone contributes, everyone serves, and everyone benefits. In fact, as far as God is concerned, you are absolutely necessary to the well-being of His Church.  And today, we’re going to look at four ways God has made you indispensable to the health and well-being of His Church.  And the first way you are indispensable is this:

You have a place to belong in God’s family In Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Romans 12:5

When God called you to faith in Jesus, at the very moment you believed, you were adopted into His family and placed into the spiritual body of Christ.  At that moment you were not only connected with Jesus, but you were also connected with every other person who believes in Jesus.   That’s why you share an immediate kinship with every other believer.  God gave you a spiritual connection in Christ.

But in this verse Paul describes OUR FUNCTION within this connection. It’s a perfect picture, because if you understand how your body works, all the parts work together.  There are no parts of the body that work independent from the whole.  If that ever happens you don’t function very well.  You end up in up in bed, in the hospital or in some rehab facility until you can get back to normal.  We instinctively understand how we need all the parts of our body to work together.  They all belong to us. And we need every part to be healthy in order for us to be healthy. And when we apply this understanding to our place Jesus’ body, it begins to make sense:  If we belong to Jesus, then we belong to each other.

Another way to say this is this: There are no lone rangers in God’s family.  You are no longer an independent operator, running your own life irrespective of others.  God has connected you to His body. And because of what God has done, you now BELONG to every other believer. You are now part of something bigger than yourself.  You are part of what God is doing to change the world.  And the result of God connecting you to His body is that you are now an essential part of what God wants to do through His Church. If you know Jesus, you are an essential part of what God wants to do.  You are a necessary element of His body.  You are needed.  I need you and you need me.  We need each other.  That’s how God designed His Church, for each of us to work together and to depend on one another to be the Church He means us to be.

And what that means for you today, is that not only does your life add value to God’s family, but it also adds meaning.  I love how Eugene Peterson translates this: Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body.  Romans 12:4-5

Do you see how this connects with our previous value:  Every Person Follows  Jesus chose each one of you to bear fruit that will last.  When you believed in Him, He gave you the potential to live and love like Him.  Now, we see here that God has put us together so we can help each other unleash our potential to become like Christ.  That’s why every believer is needed.  We need each other to reach our potential.   That’s why the Church is so different from any other organization in the world.  We exist to help one another become friends, family and followers of Jesus.  We were NEVER meant to do this alone.  God connected us in Christ so we might become like Christ together!  And that means: You have a place to belong in God’s family.  We need you.  We need each other.  God has united you with Jesus, so you never have to go it alone again.  That’s good news.  You are essential to the health and growth of God’s family. But there’s more.  Here’s the next way God made you an indispensable part His family:

2.You have a gift that’s meant to benefit God’s family  Paul spells this out for us in his letter to the Corinthians.  Here is now what is true of every Christ follower:  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.  1 Corinthians 12:7

God gives us spiritual gifts so each one of us can do our part to serve the common good.  What’s important to note here is that these gifts come to us from the Holy Spirit.  We don’t decide what gifts we get.  He simply distributes His gifts to whomever He chooses.  But the good news is that the Holy Spirit gives His gifts to every believer, not just to “special” people.  There are no qualifications needed, no special level of maturity required, not even a particular time span needed with your journey with Jesus.  If you follow Jesus Christ, then the Spirit of God is already living in you.  And if the Spirit of God is living in you, then He has already given you a spiritual ability to do good for people.  He has literally given you what you need to serve others in the family of God.

This is precisely what Peter tells us in 1 Peter 4:10: Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

Let me make two quick observations here.  First, the purpose of your spiritual gift is to serve others.  Second, you are called to be a faithful steward of God’s grace in its various forms.  The picture is pretty clear:  Each one of us has a calling to be a vessel of God’s grace.   (Straw Illustration) Each one of us is like this straw.  We freely receive an outpouring of God’s grace that is meant to flow through us to bless another person.

What I love about this picture is that it takes some of the confusion of spiritual gifts away.  If we offer ourselves to God to be used by Him however He pleases, then we are simply available to give grace wherever it’s needed.

So God gives you His Spirit so that His grace may flow through you to bless others. Grace!  Grace is at the heart of the gospel.  Grace is the generous outpouring of mercy and love on the undeserving.   We are recipients of grace upon grace in Jesus Christ.  And it is this grace that God wants to see flow through us as we serve others with the gifts He gives.

Again, this is precisely why every Christ follower is needed in God’s family.  God has poured into your new life a spiritual ability that is meant to be used for the common good of His family.  Some of you have been given the gift of mercy.  You are the ones who are quick to come to the aid of those who are sick or in distress.  Some of you have been given the gift of encouragement. You are the ones who know just what to say to help someone keep going when life is hard.  You are the one who knows just what to say to draw out the potential of a fellow Christ follower.  Some of you have been given the gift of giving.  You see a need and God moves you to give in order to meet that need.

No one has been given all the gifts.  Some of you may have more than one gift.  But the point is this:  If we are going to be the kind of Church God intends us to be, then we need you connected with others in God’s family so we can benefit from your gift.  We need your gift of encouragement.  We all need your gift of mercy.  We need you gift of wisdom, leadership, or administration, or hospitality.  We need your gift of helps.  For when every person uses his or her gifts, we all benefit.  We love one another, help one another and bear one another’s burdens.  We become a community of grace that stands out in the world.  You have a gift that’s meant to bring benefit to God’s family.  That’s why every person is indispensable in God’s family.  That’s what makes you an essential part of God’s family. God gave you a gift to bless His people.  We need you.  We can use you!  But there’s more. Here’s the next way God made you indispensable to His family:

3.You have a supporting role that helps grow God’s family!   In other words, without you we will limp along as a Church.  Listen to how Paul expresses this truth in his letter to the Ephesians: Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.  From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:15-16

The goal of our union with Christ is that we will grow and mature into the body of Christ.  But none of us can grow and mature without the support of one another in the body.  In other words, Paul gives us another picture of our role together in the Church.  Each one of us is a supporting ligament.  Each one of us has a connecting function – a supporting function.  We cannot function properly as Christ’s body without each other.

So then in your supporting role, you are actually providing strength to the body of Christ.  But you cannot provide or supply this strength if you are inactive, if you are simply a spectator or a consumer of religious services.  Once again, the idea is that your spiritual support is needed for the rest of us to grow in love and to mature in Christ.  We can’t become mature alone.  We need your support.  We need the support of and love of every person in the body.

And the only way God’s Word says that we can possibly supply this support and love to Christ’s body is when each part does its work.  They key to understanding how this makes you absolutely essential in God’s family, in Christ’s body is this word “supporting.”  This is the term used in the military that speaks of supplying enough provisions to feed and cloth an army.  This term was also used of a husband’s obligation to provide food, clothing and shelter for his wife.  And here it pictures the role each believer has to provide spiritual nourishment we’ve received from being connected to the head of the body – Jesus Christ.  In other words, God has designed His Church to grow as the life and love of Christ in you flows through your life to provide spiritual nourishment to others in His body. And this means every person is essential in God’s family.  Each one of you is a supporting ligament, meant to be a conduit of spiritual nourishment to others.  And how we provide this spiritual nourishment is through the work we are called to do.  “As each part does its work!”

So what is this work?  He tells us in the previous verses.  We are to speak God’s truth in love.  “Truthing in love.”  It’s the idea of letting the truth and love of the Gospel impact every aspect of our relationships with one another.

So “truthing in love,” means as God transforms us by the Word of Truth, His truth changes how we love one another.  This is how Jesus lived among us.  When Jesus lived among us, he was full of grace and truth.  How he lived is how God wants us to live.  So  God calls us to serve everyone in His family with truth and love.  And when we do this: when we are supplying truth to one another in the context of a loving relationship, then we will be doing what God intended us to do when He united us with Christ’s body:  Christ’s truth and love will now flow through your life to bless others.  And Christ’s truth and love will flow through their life to bless you: and the fruit of these relationship will help each of us to grow and mature in Christ.

This is what makes God’s family, the Church, such a unique, beautiful and inviting community. God doesn’t need you to get a theological degree to support your brothers.  God doesn’t need you to have some special status to love your sisters. God has already given you the truth and love of Jesus.  For from the very moment He connected you with Christ’s body, He made it possible for you to be a vehicle of truth and love to your brothers and sisters in Christ. This is your supporting role in God’s family!  This is everyone’s supporting role in God’s family.  We need the Jesus in you to help us grow and become all God wants us to become.  And that makes you an indispensable part of God’s family.  We need you and you need us.

Are you starting to see why every person is necessary ?  Why we need you and you need us?   And all of this is God’s plan for you.  For according to Him…

4.You are an indispensable part of God’s family Listen how Paul puts this final truth all together for us.  It’s all about God’s plan to make  you an essential asset in His Church.  God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, but one body.  The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 1 Corinthians 12:18-21

 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it,  so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.  1 Corinthians 1:22-25

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 1 Corinthians 12:21-27

If you are a Christ follower than you are an indispensable part of God’s Church, because God His Church to work this way – with you.  And according to Him, EVEN THE WEAKEST AMONGS US IS INDISPENSIBLE!  That means every single one of you is necessary and needed in God’s family.  And God calls us all to have equal concern for each other – not just those who lead ministries, or teach, or lead Journey Groups.  Every one of you is an essential person to what God wants to do in His Church.

That means you are a valuable part of Rock Springs Church no matter what you do!  Why does this matter?  Well, it matters because we have the tendency to value people in much the same way the world does.  We see what you do, and if it is good, we applaud you.  If it what you do isn’t noteworthy, we tend to ignore you. That’s what the world does.  But God doesn’t do this.  He values the weakest among us.  He honors those we don’t think deserve honoring.  Every single one of you is important to what God wants to do in and through His Church.  You are necessary.  You are needed.  You are indispensable!  God saved you to include you in what He wants to do to bless the world.  And that means every single Christ follower is absolutely essential In God’s family.

So then, if all what God says is true, then what should we do with this value:  Every Person is Essential to God’s family.

First, you need to see yourself this way. You need to see yourself the way God sees you.  See yourself as an indispensable asset to the people of God. God put you in His Church with something to offer.  You have the love of Christ to give to someone who needs it.  You have a spiritual gift to impart God’s grace to others.  And God wants you to experience this same love and grace from His people.  See yourself as God sees you.

Second, If you’ve been a consumer of religious goods and services, you need to repent.  For being part of God’s family is not about what you get, but about how God’s blessed you in Jesus to give. You need to get off the bench and into the game.  AND THE GOOD NEWS IS, as you get involved, use your gifts, speak the truth in love, you will receive so much more than you ever imagined!

Thirdly, Start seeing every brother and sister the same way God does. He sees even the weakest among us as indispensable to us. He sees the least honorable as someone to be honored.  So you need to learn how to honor even the smallest acts of love, faithfulness, kindness and service.  Don’t underestimate the weakest among us.  God often does His best work through those who are weak.

Finally, Start doing your part in supporting God’s people with the truth and love of Jesus that is in you.  And one way you can do that is by encouraging disconnected believers to join you in a Journey Group, so that they might receive the truth and love God intends to help them grow, and that they too can experience the joy of sharing the truth and love of Jesus with others.

This is God’s design for us.  God put us together to do life together.  I need you, you need me, and we need each other.  For the way God designed His Church to be is a community where Every Person is an Essential Asset, where every person is truly Indispensable. Without you we are weak.  But with you we are strong.  Without you few carry the load.  But with you many are blessed. Without you a few get the applause.  But with you God gets the glory and we all become God intends us to be: a family where everyone belongs, everyone contributes, everyone grows, and everyone is honored. That’s what happens when everyone does their part.  May we become more and more like God’s design for His church so that God might get the glory and the world might see Christ in us.  Let’s pray.